PNG's stability a force for nation's growth

China contributes to defense and development of country

Editor's note: The Papua New Guinea Defense Force - or PNGDF - is the unified armed forces of the country. It originated from the Australian Army land forces of the territory of Papua New Guinea before independence, coming into being in January 1973 and having its antecedents in the Pacific islands regiment.

At independence, it numbered 3,750 personnel in all ranks, with 465 Australian personnel augmenting the force to assist in training and technical support. Today the PNGDF is a small force numbering around 2,100 personnel due to the PNG government's downsizing operation, and consisting of a land element, an air operations element and a maritime operations element with steady intakes of recruits to reach the 5,000-plus mark by 2018. It is a joint force tasked with defending Papua New Guinea and its territories against external attack, as well as having secondary functions including national-building and internal security tasks.

Defense accounts for up to 4 percent of government expenditure, while also receiving significant assistance and training support from Australia, New Zealand, the United States and other nations.

Minister of Defense Fabian Pok talks about his vision for stability and peace in the region:

What, in your opinion, are the key factors that are contributing to the country's development and success?

The first is political stability, which has brought many investors. We have ministers that have been in the same position for many years, and that is reassuring for the investors. That is why the country is very stable.

I was one of the people that requested that the prime minister create an integrity law, which has turned out to be fundamental to a stable political climate. We cannot have a new government every six months. We need continuity. Now we have different goals, we have more companies, such as Ramu Nico that is exporting gas.

In PNG the system works when there is political stability. If a minister and department are in a position for many years, they can continue with their politics and projects and look to investment.

Taking the LNG (liquefied natural gas) project as an example, if it wasn't for political stability, the LNG project wouldn't have happened.

So today I can talk to businesses and investors with certainty, because I will be there to deal with what I'm saying.

You have spoken about the desire to introduce and undertake major changes aimed at remobilizing and developing the defense force. How do you plan to further develop the sector?

One of the most important things we are looking at is to increase military recruits; we now have between 2,000 and 3,000 people, but we are trying to increase that.

So we are dealing with a major recruitment project. We are trying to get more people to get to us. Another very big project I'm doing is to transfer this area where we are to a new place. This will be done by a Chinese company with the help of an Eximbank loan. We can only apply to Eximbank when we have the land. We have a master plan, to build a city within the city. We have got the plan, but we are waiting for approvals.

The land we are now standing on will be owned by a company under the defense force. We already have the company created and, with the loan, we will have a lot of money, enough to build around 500 houses. We will rent these houses out and that way, the defense force won't need to depend on the government to sustain itself.

During your visit to China in 2013, China's former minister of defense Liang Guanglie made clear that China is willing to make joint efforts with PNG to actively push forward exchange and cooperation between the two militaries and make joint contributions to regional peace and stability. Please comment on China's role as a strategic international ally in PNG's military and defense.

We have adopted the policy of cooperation - everybody we deal with is our friend. We agreed with China that they would train our medical personnel and when I went there, I met with them. Three or four students go every year.

We are also grateful that they contributed to barracks - if you look out across from this office, they were constructed with a contribution from the Chinese, and we are opening a new training center. Also, they have given us the grant, in which we have asked them to supply us with armored vehicles, troop carriers, a gym and swimming pools.

So we are grateful that the Chinese government is helping us. We would like them to help more. We are also looking ahead for further cooperation with the defense force.

Liang Guanglie said China and PNG have constantly maintained deep political mutual trust and expanded economic and trade cooperation, achieving great results in such fields as energy, resources, infrastructure, health and education. What areas would you like to highlight for potential Chinese investors?

After our independence from Australia, we were in quite an inferior position from the start. When we looked around for help, there were a lot of people, and I will be very honest with you, from many other countries like Australia and the US, that told us that the interest of China in PNG is much greater than just this.

But the truth is, we need the support to build the basic infrastructures. And China is also our friend. We are grateful to China for the loan, and there are a lot of Chinese companies here now, developing more infrastructure than ever before.

China has the right to come to our country and help us. If other countries cannot help us, there is nothing wrong in looking for help to China. I don't see a problem with that.

Importantly, we have never failed a commitment with our loans, we have never been late in paying our loans. We always pay on time. And I'm sure we will pay the loan to China. They wanted a loan of 6 billion kina ($2.19 billion), and we told the parliament that we could have 10 billion kina and that we are fine to pay it. We need the infrastructure more than anything else. As soon as the roads open up, we can export more coffee and other goods. At this moment, the road infrastructure is in its infancy, and we can see its potential.

We couldn't do this before, because of the stability issues, but we can do it now. And with new infrastructure, new opportunities will arise.

You have been contributing to the country's success in many ways, leading various ministerial portfolios during your five-year term. You have been minister for forests, lands and physical planning, public enterprises and communications, petroleum and energy; and labor and employment, demonstrating a deep knowledge of the different sectors of PNG's economy. What motivated you to have such impact and contribution to the PNG. And what will your legacy be?

The most important thing to me is to see PNG like any other developed country in the world, with services operating fully for all citizens and with conditions like other parts in the world. PNG needs homes, health services, power lines, good road connections and water systems. People's living conditions have to improve - that's a basic thing. At this moment the country is able to sustain itself because we have a lot of resources. But the people in the villages are not living in the way they are supposed to live.

And this is my motivating factor. I really want to see the citizens of PNG and in the villages living in conditions like in the rest of the world. The economy is growing, the government is trying to put more money in rural areas - we are donating 10 million kina to every district.

InFocus provided this story.

(China Daily 06/29/2015 page16)